Daily Number

49

December 13, 2013

Another business group ranking, another trip to the cellar for New Jersey. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council ranked the Garden State 49th out of the 50 states in its annual Small Business Policy Index.

The index looks at 47 costs, which the council said are either government-imposed or government-related and affect small businesses and entrepreneurs, and tallied which states had the highest burdens. Among the measures were all types of taxes, energy costs, healthcare regulations, crime rates, labor union policies, government spending, and education reform.

Predictably, New Jersey performed poorly when it came to tax rates. It also got dinged for things such as not being a “right to work” state, having a lot of health mandates, encouraging renewable energy, and having paid family-leave laws. Things it was ranked highly for include a low crime rate, slowing of growth of state spending, and lack of reliance on the federal government for revenues.

Although the council said that small businesses and entrepreneurs will choose to migrate to the top-ranked states, and cites Census Bureau statistics, the five bottom states, in order, are Hawaii, New York, Vermont, New Jersey, and California.